Care Hospitals promoters set to scale up medical equipment biz

The promoters of Hyderabad-based Care Hospitals, among the top five hospital chains in India, after raising a record $110 million from Advent Private Equity in the largest healthcare deal so far during 2012, are looking to parallely ramp up their medical devices business, Relisys Medical Devices.

The promoters, led by N Krishna Reddy, are now closing in on a deal to tap strategic or private equity funding for Relisys. Relisys Medical Devices specialises in manufacturing cardiac stents and catheters and is among the few Indian companies which manufactures these key medical devices entirely in India, starting from the raw materials. Speaking to Business Standard, Krishna Reddy said they were to raise funding to the tune of Rs 40 crore for the next phase of commercialisation of technology.

“For the past few years, we have been incubating the technology and now we are ready for commercialisation to take the product to the global stage,” Reddy said.

The promoters have so far infused Rs 40 crore through the equity route and have invested another Rs 30 crore through debt.

We are looking at a strategic investor who can take this forward or an established private equity investor to fuel the expansion in marketing and distribution on a global scale

“The medical devices sector in India is now evolving rapidly and it has to grow similarly like how the pharma sector grew – from bulk to formulations, Reddy added.

Relisys’ products are already being used at many hospitals in India including at Fortis, Max, Jayadeva, Care Hospitals besides being exported to few countries including to Turkey. The company has set up a manufacturing unit spread over 160,000 square feet spread across 7.5 acres, which has the capability to churn out stents and catheters right from granule stage.

Relisys’ move to tap external funding comes at a time when the Indian market is growing a rapid pace from the current consumption of close to 200,000 stents per year. Globally, the market is valued at close to $10 billion with global majors such as Abbot, Medtronic controlling major share of the market.